The Cottage at the End of a Lane
507 FOLLOWERS
In 2017 we moved to a cottage at the end of a lane in Mid Suffolk where we will enjoy the peace and quiet of the countryside for as long as possible.
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
3h ago
Another boot sale and a £1 spend.
Just 3 cards to add to the birthday-card box including two for men which are not so easily found.
Then I spent £1 more on a vase of the height and shape I've been looking for and another £1 for two more birthday cards ready for Grandchildren - the eldest two will both be nine in 2025.
Saturday's car-boot sale was HUGE - they even had a sign out saying "Sellers Pitches Full Up" when I arrived just before 7.30 am..
Sunday was the first boot-sale closer to home now that the site had dried out enough. I went, walked all round an ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
1d ago
69 years ago today I was born in this house belonging to my Grandma and Grandad, in Stowmarket in Mid Suffolk..
My Mum was staying with her Mum and Dad for my birth. My dad had been killed in a motorbike accident a few months earlier and the house they had bought to renovate wasn't yet in any condition for a new-born baby.
After that I don't know how or where we lived, but our house was finished for me and Mum, even though there was no bathroom and only an outside toilet for a few years- which I can just about remember - thank goodness the bathroom was built after a while.
As for ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
2d ago
Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I found a church that was unlocked. Winston is a tiny village - (population 160) a mile or so from Debenham. The church is tucked away down a lane and mainly dates from the C14.
The porch dates from the early C15 and is fancy red brick with the niches for the saints.
It's a small very simple church and the first things I noticed were the flowers on all the windowsills, left there since Easter Sunday and looking lovely.
Looking down the church to the Altar . The pews are very simple and only those in the chancel have carved ends which I forgot ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
4d ago
Two clay pots were found at the boot sale last Saturday and they were my only spend (£1) on a day when there were more people selling than anytime this season so far. Just nothing much needed. I picked up three Beswick Birds like my Blue Tit and Wren, one was a robin but he had a chipped beak, one was supposed to be a grey wagtail but didn't really look like one and had a chipped tail and the third was a much larger pheasant but he'd been badly damaged and repaired even more badly so all three were left behind and I never wanted a Beswick Bird collection anyway!
I could have bought ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
5d ago
Firstly Thank you for comments on yesterdays post.
My birthday month at WI so a birthday 'posy' which was really a lovely bunch of roses in a gorgeous colour.
Our speaker at WI this week was a lady telling us all about The Bevin Boys and especially about her father.
At the beginning of WWII much of the coal mined in this country was exported to Poland and Italy so the need for coal suddenly dropped as war started and therefore it was decided that miners wouldn't be a reserved occupation and many went off to fight. (The government didn't look very far ahead - just like nowadays ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
6d ago
After I did the post about the early C18 Toll house that moved from the A140 to Needham Market where it is now a Vets surgery I looked on the library website to see if there were any books on the subject and reserved this one.
The map shows the roads in Suffolk that had toll houses and the black solid dots show those that still exist in one form or another.
Most of the toll houses built in Suffolk were not an interesting shape like The Mustard Pot but always built right on the road edge. They would have had a door opening to the road where the gate keeper would ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
1w ago
This was my 4th book with Spring in the title and it was spotting the cover of the book and buying it from the library For Sale shelf that gave me the idea for Reading The Seasons.
Una is 15 and her sister Hal is 12 when their diplomat father summons them away from their English boarding school to start a new life with him in India. When she discovers their beautiful governess Alix is actually his mistress, she is furious. Bored and lonely, Una starts to spend time with Ravi, the gardener's young assistant. Ravi brings poetry and compassion into Una's life but what began as fr ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
1w ago
One day towards the end of March I could hear a Goldfinch somewhere in the Sycamore tree............. they have a very twittery song - a mixture of different sounds............... and stood searching for it for several minutes because I've rarely seen any in the garden here. Later it was on the birdfeeder and I grabbed the camera and got a couple of not very good photos.
I bought a special Niger seed feeder to try and persuade them to visit but this one preferred the general seed feeder.
When the family were visiting a couple of weeks ago Son (the only one o ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
1w ago
The book I read recently 'Across a Waking Land; A 1,000 Mile Walk Through a British Spring' (it's been very useful for blog posts!) begins
just as Russia invades Ukraine and the author says he thinks this will have a really serious affect on food supplies and prices. It certainly has, coupled with the long term effects of Covid (higher costs after the slowdown of manufacturing etc ) and Brexit (difficulty in getting foreign workers for harvesting and packing).
Luckily I could check out how much prices had changed because last year in March I was doing the 'Eating Bas ..read more
The Cottage at the End of a Lane
1w ago
The vegetable seedlings are out in the greenhouse now with fleece to cover them every night. The only benefit of cloudy days is the overnight temperatures are well above freezing. I looked at the weather forecast last Sunday and every single day this week had rain spots under the cloud symbol at some time during the day or night. And they were correct, including a torrential downpour for several minutes on Thursday morning. Luckily Friday was very windy and by late afternoon the grass was just about dry enough to do a quick run around with the mower.
I spent a while searching the s ..read more